Show Search Form

Search Results

registered interest	true false
date	exactly: or between: and
answering body
answering dept id
answering dept short name
answering dept sort name
hansard heading
house id
legislature	pref label
question text
tabling member constituency
tabling member printed
uin
answer	is ministerial correction true false date of answer exactly: or between: and answer text answering member constituency answering member printed grouped question UIN question first answered question first ministerially corrected answering member label previous answer version answering member constituency answering member printed answering member label
tabling member	label

Search

1236072

registered interest
date	21/09/2020
answering body	Home Office
answering dept id	1
answering dept short name	Home Office
answering dept sort name	Home Office
hansard heading	Asylum: Evictions and Finance
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will publish the (a) evidence, (b) reasons and (c) analysis for the decision to resume cessations of support and evictions of unsuccessful asylum seekers.
tabling member constituency	Cumbernauld, Kilsyth and Kirkintilloch East
tabling member printed	Stuart C McDonald
uin	92787
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 24/09/2020 answer text <p>Since the beginning of the Coronavirus pandemic, the Home Office paused ending support for people who had been granted asylum, or whose claim had been refused. This was to ensure that people were not made homeless and able to follow social distancing.</p><p>We said from the outset that this was a temporary measure which would be brought to an end as soon as it was safe to do so.</p><p>The Home Office has started cessations of support in a phased way which will reduce demand on the asylum system while prioritising the safety of those within the asylum system. This means moving people out of Home Office accommodation and ending subsistence payments from the Home Office.</p><p>We have been working closely with National and Local health Colleagues throughout the pandemic to inform our approach and will continue to do so.</p><p>We remain committed to working closely with the accommodation providers and communicating with local authorities to relieve pressure and capacity as much as possible and ensure that health guidance is being followed.</p> answering member constituency Croydon South answering member printed Chris Philp grouped question UIN 92788 question first answered 24/09/2020 16:17:31 answering member 4503 label Biography information for Chris Philp
tabling member	4393 label Biography information for Stuart C McDonald

1236073

registered interest
date	21/09/2020
answering body	Home Office
answering dept id	1
answering dept short name	Home Office
answering dept sort name	Home Office
hansard heading	Asylum: Evictions and Finance
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether she had discussions with (a) Public Health England, (b) Public Health Scotland, (c) Public Health Wales and (d) local public health officials, prior to the decision to resume cessations of support and evictions of unsuccessful asylum seekers.
tabling member constituency	Cumbernauld, Kilsyth and Kirkintilloch East
tabling member printed	Stuart C McDonald
uin	92788
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 24/09/2020 answer text <p>Since the beginning of the Coronavirus pandemic, the Home Office paused ending support for people who had been granted asylum, or whose claim had been refused. This was to ensure that people were not made homeless and able to follow social distancing.</p><p>We said from the outset that this was a temporary measure which would be brought to an end as soon as it was safe to do so.</p><p>The Home Office has started cessations of support in a phased way which will reduce demand on the asylum system while prioritising the safety of those within the asylum system. This means moving people out of Home Office accommodation and ending subsistence payments from the Home Office.</p><p>We have been working closely with National and Local health Colleagues throughout the pandemic to inform our approach and will continue to do so.</p><p>We remain committed to working closely with the accommodation providers and communicating with local authorities to relieve pressure and capacity as much as possible and ensure that health guidance is being followed.</p> answering member constituency Croydon South answering member printed Chris Philp grouped question UIN 92787 question first answered 24/09/2020 16:17:31 answering member 4503 label Biography information for Chris Philp
tabling member	4393 label Biography information for Stuart C McDonald

1236075

registered interest
date	21/09/2020
answering body	Home Office
answering dept id	1
answering dept short name	Home Office
answering dept sort name	Home Office
hansard heading	Asylum: Evictions and Finance
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what discussions she had with local authorities in asylum dispersal areas prior to the decision to resume cessations of support and evictions of unsuccessful asylum seekers; and in which dispersal areas the first cessations of support will take place.
tabling member constituency	Cumbernauld, Kilsyth and Kirkintilloch East
tabling member printed	Stuart C McDonald
uin	92789
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 24/09/2020 answer text <p>We are resuming negative asylum support cessations in England, and soon after in the rest of the United Kingdom following discussion with officials in the Devolved Administrations.</p><p>Local authorities have been consulted about cessations and we continue to work closely with councils to plan for these changes. Data has been shared with authorities as part of move-on planning and communication channels are open throughout the move-on period.</p><p>We remain committed to working closely with local authorities to relieve pressure and capacity as much as possible, however it is only right that recently granted refugees move into local authority care to assist with their integration. It is also right that those no longer entitled to asylum support leave the United Kingdom.</p> answering member constituency Croydon South answering member printed Chris Philp question first answered 24/09/2020 16:12:56 answering member 4503 label Biography information for Chris Philp
tabling member	4393 label Biography information for Stuart C McDonald

1236077

registered interest
date	21/09/2020
answering body	Home Office
answering dept id	1
answering dept short name	Home Office
answering dept sort name	Home Office
hansard heading	Asylum: Evictions and Finance
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to the decision to resume cessations of support and evictions of unsuccessful asylum seekers, what (a) public health and (b) other criteria will be used to inform decisions on whether to evict and cease support for individual unsuccessful asylum claimants.
tabling member constituency	Cumbernauld, Kilsyth and Kirkintilloch East
tabling member printed	Stuart C McDonald
uin	92790
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 24/09/2020 answer text <p>The Home Office has started cessations of support in a phased way which will reduce demand on the asylum system while prioritising the safety of those within the asylum system. This means moving people out of Home Office accommodation and ending subsistence payments from the Home Office.</p><p>For those whose asylum claims have been rejected and appeal rights exhausted, they will be expected to leave the country, assistance is available to those who opt to leave voluntarily. The Voluntary Returns Scheme will pay for travel and provide a cash amount, and this can and should be utilised whenever possible.</p><p>People who are awaiting a Covid test result should not be asked to leave their current dwelling until they receive a negative test result and are symptom free and that those self-isolating due to a positive test result should adhere to the full 14-day self-isolation period for close contacts.</p><p>These factors, applied to an individual case, might mean that a failed asylum seeker continues to be eligible to receive support because they are unable to leave the UK or take the necessary practical steps to enable them to leave (for example by attending an interview for the purposes of obtaining a necessary travel document).</p> answering member constituency Croydon South answering member printed Chris Philp question first answered 24/09/2020 16:14:32 answering member 4503 label Biography information for Chris Philp
tabling member	4393 label Biography information for Stuart C McDonald

1236123

registered interest
date	21/09/2020
answering body	Home Office
answering dept id	1
answering dept short name	Home Office
answering dept sort name	Home Office
hansard heading	Asylum: Coronavirus
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to ensure people seeking asylum are protected from covid-19 in the even that they are evicted from accommodation provided by her Department.
tabling member constituency	Leeds Central
tabling member printed	Hilary Benn
uin	92701
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 24/09/2020 answer text <p>We are committed to preventing the further spread of Covid-19. Cessations are taking place in a phased way and we will keep them under review to ensure that this does not place people at greater risk.</p><p>We will work closely with accommodation providers to make sure people are moved on safely and in line with public health guidance. We will consider local lockdowns and other factors as part of this process.</p><p>People who are awaiting a Covid test result should not be asked to leave their current dwelling until they receive a negative test result and are symptom free and that those self-isolating due to a positive test result should adhere to the full 14-day self-isolation period for close contacts.</p> answering member constituency Croydon South answering member printed Chris Philp question first answered 24/09/2020 16:15:58 answering member 4503 label Biography information for Chris Philp
tabling member	413 label Biography information for Hilary Benn

1236295

registered interest
date	21/09/2020
answering body	Home Office
answering dept id	1
answering dept short name	Home Office
answering dept sort name	Home Office
hansard heading	Asylum
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether asylum applicants are required to claim asylum in the first safe country they reach.
tabling member constituency	Newcastle upon Tyne Central
tabling member printed	Chi Onwurah
uin	92768
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 24/09/2020 answer text <p><del class="ministerial">We believe that those who reach safe countries should stay and claim asylum without delay, rather than make further, unnecessary and often dangerous journeys in order to claim asylum in a country of their own choosing.</del></p><p><del class="ministerial">Illegal migration from safe countries undermines our efforts to help those most in need - controlled resettlement via safe and legal routes is the best way to protect such people and disrupt the organised crime groups that exploit migrants and refugees.</del></p><p><del class="ministerial">To support these principles, the UK, the EU and other countries in the world employ legal procedures to return people to the safe countries through which they have passed. In the case of the UK, the majority of such returns presently take place under the Dublin Regulation, but from 1 January, such returns will take place according to our domestic rules.</del></p><p><del class="ministerial">Where the UK considers the claim of someone who has failed to take advantage of a reasonable opportunity to make an asylum claim or human rights claim while in a safe country, the law requires that behaviour to be taken into account as damaging to the claimant’s credibility.</del></p><p><ins class="ministerial">We believe that those who reach safe countries should stay and claim asylum without delay, rather than make further, unnecessary and often dangerous journeys in order to claim asylum in a country of their own choosing.</ins></p><p><ins class="ministerial">Illegal migration from safe countries undermines our efforts to help those most in need - controlled resettlement direct from conflict zones via safe and legal routes is the best way to protect such people and disrupt the organised crime groups that exploit migrants and refugees.</ins></p><p><ins class="ministerial">To support these principles, the UK, the EU and other countries in the world employ legal procedures to return people to the safe countries through which they have passed. In the case of the UK, the majority of such returns presently take place under the Dublin Regulation, but from 1 January, such returns will take place according to our domestic rules.</ins></p><p><ins class="ministerial">Where the UK considers the claim of someone who has failed to take advantage of a reasonable opportunity to make an asylum claim or human rights claim while in a safe country, the law requires that behaviour to be taken into account as damaging to the claimant’s credibility.</ins></p> answering member constituency Croydon South answering member printed Chris Philp question first answered 24/09/2020 16:09:45 question first ministerially corrected 24/09/2020 20:08:58 answering member 4503 label Biography information for Chris Philp previous answer version 49772 answering member constituency Croydon South answering member printed Chris Philp answering member 4503 label Biography information for Chris Philp
tabling member	4124 label Biography information for Chi Onwurah

1235763

registered interest
date	18/09/2020
answering body	Home Office
answering dept id	1
answering dept short name	Home Office
answering dept sort name	Home Office
hansard heading	Asylum: Slavery
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many and what proportion of the victims of (a) human trafficking or (b) modern slavery who were granted asylum or humanitarian protection in each of (i) 2016, (ii) 2017, (iii) 2018 and (iv) 2019 were granted asylum or humanitarian protection on the grounds of circumstances unconnected to human trafficking or modern slavery.
tabling member constituency	Nottingham North
tabling member printed	Alex Norris
uin	91796
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 24/09/2020 answer text <p>The Home Office does not publish data on how many and what proportion of the victims of human trafficking or modern slavery, and those who are foreign national victims, who were granted asylum, humanitarian protection or discretionary leave for the years 2016 to 2019, as this information is not held in a reportable format. This also includes those who are EU nationals and/or on the grounds of circumstances unconnected to human trafficking or modern slavery.</p><p>However, The Home Office can state how many people were granted asylum, humanitarian protection or discretionary leave, and can be found at Asy_02a of the published Immigration Statistics:</p><p><a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/immigration-statistics-year-ending-june-2020/list-of-tables" target="_blank">https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/immigration-statistics-year-ending-june-2020/list-of-tables</a></p> answering member constituency Croydon South answering member printed Chris Philp grouped question UIN 91797 question first answered 24/09/2020 17:15:58 answering member 4503 label Biography information for Chris Philp
tabling member	4641 label Biography information for Alex Norris

1235764

registered interest
date	18/09/2020
answering body	Home Office
answering dept id	1
answering dept short name	Home Office
answering dept sort name	Home Office
hansard heading	Asylum: Slavery
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many and what proportion of foreign national victims of human trafficking and modern slavery (a) applied for and (b) were granted (i) asylum (ii) humanitarian protection or (iii) Discretionary Leave to Remain in each year from 2016 to 2019 inclusive were EU nationals.
tabling member constituency	Nottingham North
tabling member printed	Alex Norris
uin	91797
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 24/09/2020 answer text <p>The Home Office does not publish data on how many and what proportion of the victims of human trafficking or modern slavery, and those who are foreign national victims, who were granted asylum, humanitarian protection or discretionary leave for the years 2016 to 2019, as this information is not held in a reportable format. This also includes those who are EU nationals and/or on the grounds of circumstances unconnected to human trafficking or modern slavery.</p><p>However, The Home Office can state how many people were granted asylum, humanitarian protection or discretionary leave, and can be found at Asy_02a of the published Immigration Statistics:</p><p><a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/immigration-statistics-year-ending-june-2020/list-of-tables" target="_blank">https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/immigration-statistics-year-ending-june-2020/list-of-tables</a></p> answering member constituency Croydon South answering member printed Chris Philp grouped question UIN 91796 question first answered 24/09/2020 17:15:58 answering member 4503 label Biography information for Chris Philp
tabling member	4641 label Biography information for Alex Norris

1235777

registered interest
date	18/09/2020
answering body	Home Office
answering dept id	1
answering dept short name	Home Office
answering dept sort name	Home Office
hansard heading	Asylum
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether she plans to increase the asylum support rates, beyond the increase made in June 2020.
tabling member constituency	Cumbernauld, Kilsyth and Kirkintilloch East
tabling member printed	Stuart C McDonald
uin	91769
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 24/09/2020 answer text <p>The standard allowance given to asylum seekers who would otherwise be destitute was raised to £39.60 per week from £37.75 per week with effect from 15 June, an increase of around 5%. This increase was significantly higher than the general rate of inflation, which Office for National Statistics data shows was only 0.5% in the 12 months period to May.</p><p> </p><p>Further work is being done, as it is every year, to ensure the rate is enough to meet the essential living needs of asylum seekers (the legal test) and we will announce the outcome in due course.</p><p> </p><p>The taxpayer also provides free accommodation, with utilities and council tax paid for and there is free access to the NHS and free access to education for their children.</p><p> </p><p>The UK has a generous record in supporting asylum seekers. Last year, we made around 20,000 grants of asylum or protection (one of the higher figures in Europe), as well as offered protection to 3,000 Unaccompanied Asylum Seeking Children – the highest number of any country in Europe. In addition, we have directly resettled around 20,000 people from the most dangerous areas of the world (especially Syrians) in the UK over the last 5 years. Finally, we spend around £14 billion per year in Overseas Aid, helping millions of people around the world. This is the highest amount of any country in Europe and we are the only G7 country to meet the 0.7% of GNI Overseas Aid target.</p> answering member constituency Croydon South answering member printed Chris Philp question first answered 24/09/2020 17:36:43 answering member 4503 label Biography information for Chris Philp
tabling member	4393 label Biography information for Stuart C McDonald

1235596

registered interest
date	17/09/2020
answering body	Home Office
answering dept id	1
answering dept short name	Home Office
answering dept sort name	Home Office
hansard heading	Asylum: Hotels
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many asylum seekers have been put into hotel accommodation in (a) Shipley constituency, (b) Bradford district, (c) West Yorkshire and (d) England in each of the last 12 months.
tabling member constituency	Shipley
tabling member printed	Philip Davies
uin	91598
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 24/09/2020 answer text <p>The number of asylum seekers accommodated in each local authority can be found at <a href="https://eur01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.gov.uk%2Fgovernment%2Fstatistical-data-sets%2Fasylum-and-resettlement-datasets%23asylum-support&amp;data=02%7C01%7C%7C59aaf422e5514cc57ab908d80ee3338c%7Cf24d93ecb2914192a08af182245945c2%7C0%7C0%7C637275716261597833&amp;sdata=6LwYz97z54ErYCJEkz%2FEUt7eu4MaMdlnEDmyvSsu3I0%3D&amp;reserved=0" target="_blank">https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/asylum-and-resettlement-datasets#asylum-support</a></p><p>This includes the number of those accommodated in hotels.</p><p>Data is published on a quarterly basis with the latest information covering until 31<sup>st</sup> June 2020. The next quarterly figures are due to be released in November 2020</p><p> </p> answering member constituency Croydon South answering member printed Chris Philp question first answered 24/09/2020 16:19:11 answering member 4503 label Biography information for Chris Philp
tabling member	1565 label Biography information for Sir Philip Davies